


Redemption

by Anonymous



Category: Figure Skating RPF
Genre: Glitter, Ice Cream, M/M, Memories, nekomimi, yuzuvier - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-07-14
Updated: 2017-08-03
Packaged: 2018-12-02 02:39:03
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 4,759
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11500035
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/
Summary: 優しいだけの言葉なら今の僕は癒せない果てしなく続く戦いにこの身をすべて捧げるだけ- Redemption, GacktThe year is 2012, Yuzu and Javi are at ice shows in Japan not long after Yuzu joined TCC...The usual RPF disclaimer applies.





	1. Chapter 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Coffee. More coffee. And Maia is curious about something. With Maia and Alex Shibutani making a guest appearance. (Poor Alex, in my imagination he's always the guy who gets embarrassed.)

Javier Fernandez loved doing ice shows in Japan. He loved a great many things in and about Japan.

The one thing he didn't love was that the hotel courtesy set, while often generous, did not include morning coffee.

Never mind that green tea supposedly had a far higher caffeine content, what he wanted at waking up was a cup of coffee.

Or three, given the strength - or rather lack thereof - of coffee in Japan.

As a result he more often than not in the mornings stumbled half awake into whichever hotel lobby or restaurant or coffee shop could provide him with his morning drug of choice.

Strong, hot coffee.

Anything else was so far from his mind that he didn't even notice Maia Shibutani until she accompanied her waving with a shout of "Javi!!!" that shocked everybody else in the quiet room into looking up from whatever they were doing.

He made a quieting motion, then remembering that over eager fans were not, generally, a problem in Japan, took his time to collect his - extra strength, for Japan - coffee and went to join the siblings at their table.

Silently.

Maia was too excited about something to give him time to slowly wake up.

"Javi," she said, "Alex just told me... that Japanese kid - Yuzuru?"

"Yes?" Javi rather grumbled; he did like Yuzuru, a lot actually, but that didn't mean he was particularly keen on talking about him before even a 2nd morning coffee.

"Well, Alex said, you know," she told Javi, who clearly did not, "when everybody was changing for showers... I mean, does he do that in Toronto, too?"

Javi, having managed to attract a waiter's attention and convey his desire for another coffee, after getting it finally gave Maia a little more attention.

"Does he what in Toronto?" he asked.

Maia blushed a bit.

"Well, you know..." she ventured, not explaining anything at all.

"Er, no," Javi, making good headway on the 2nd cup of coffee and finally getting curious, if not really all that interested, said, "I don't."

"Well," Maia said again; instead of continuing with words, she hooked her thumb into the waist of her jeans, making a little pulling down gesture.

"Oh THAT," Javi said, finally enlightened. "Like..."

Removing one hand from his coffee cup he indicated his own waist with still curled fingers, opened his hand in a sweeping down gesture.

"... dropping ALL textiles, you mean?"

Maia cleared her throat, reached for the complimentary glass of water always present on a table in Japan.

"Un..."

Javi had problems not to choke on his coffee, amused that while Maia was flushed a little, the colour of Alex' ears and cheeks was rapidly nearing fire engine red.

"Oh that then," he said, deadpan, "yes, he does. All the time."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer:
> 
> I don't know if a certain person has the habit attributed to him in chapter one this fic - I think rather not, since very likely it would have leaked by now - but that kind of behaviour would actually not be considered all that strange in Japan where even for the better part of the last century bathing was more of a public - or semi public - rather than a private matter.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I took the liberty to fudge Shoma into this even though very likely he wasn't there even in the minor role I gave him. Kanako Murakami might have been.

Having left the Shib Sibs, Javier Fernandez, after having acquired a third coffee and still holding it, was wandering around the hotel lobby in a likely futile search for an English newspaper when Kanako Murakami left her elevator; she smiled when she went over to say hello.

"おはよう, ハビさん," she greeted him. "Up already?"

"おはよう, 佳菜子さん," he smiled back, holding up his coffee by way of explanation, "you're up early yourself. Joining us for the show after all?"

"Sadly not," she answered, "I just happened to be here today - and Yuzu-kun promised me some Yuzu ice cream some time back so I decided to drop by and remind him."

She smiled an especially angelic smile that made Javi laugh in turn: while Yuzuru was an early riser himself, even he probably would not have appreciated being woken up very early in the morning on a day off.

Javi was intrigued by something else though.

"Yuzu ice cream?" he repeated. "There is YUZU ice cream?"

"Hm, yes," Kanako confirmed, choosing not to correct his misunderstanding, "there is. It's very good. You should try it!"

*************

Shoma Uno stopped on his way from the entrance of the hotel to wherever he was going when he saw Kanako Murakami waving at him; he changed his trajectory to meet her partway.

"おはようございます, 佳菜子さん," he greeted his sempai politely, "何か, ありますか?"

"Is there anything I can do for you," roughly, in English.

She shook her head, laughed a little.

"No, thank you," she declined, "I just needed an excuse to get away from Fernandez-senshu."

"Oh?" Shoma asked curiously. Looking over her shoulder he saw Javi in turn looking at her, his expression slightly bemused.

"I told him to try some Yuzu ice cream," Kanako grinned.

Shoma nodded; getting some of the more sour than sweet, tart and just a little bitter aftertaste ice cream on what promised to become a very hot summer day made excellent sense to him.

That, however, did not explain Kanako's mirth.

His bewilderment obviously showed because Kanako shook her head at him.

"Really, Shoma-kun," she said with a pretend long suffering sigh, lightly rapping his forehead with her knuckles, "you have no more imagination than a bean stalk."

"Ouch," Shoma said, "and what does imagination have to do with ice cream?"

"Yuzu ice cream!" Kanako said with a certain emphasis; when the younger man still didn't understand shifted intonation a bit.

"Yu-zu ice cream," she said.

*************

"先輩, おはようございます!" desperately trying to suppress his laughter Shoma deferentially greeted Japan ace Yuzuru Hanyu when he stepped out of the elevator a few moments after Kanako had made her pronouncement. "I have been sent here to help out if there is anything you need."

"Thank you, Shoma-kun," Yuzuru said, unsurprised; things like that were what kohai did, "nothing at the moment."

"Are you okay?" he added when he noticed that the promising younger skater seemed to be wheezing.

"I am fine, sempai," Shoma assured Yuzuru hastily, very much not wanting to explain the situation, he nodded towards the other side of the lobby, "I think Fernandez-senshu is waiting for you."

Not waiting for an answer from Yuzuru he lead the way over, then discreetly retired when he noticed that Javier saw them coming.

"Awake yet," Yuzu teased when he reached his friend; he hadn't been all that long yet at the TCC but already couldn't count anymore how many cups of coffee he had already put in the almost always arriving still sleepy Spaniard's hands in the morning.

"Javi?" he verbally nudged the older skater, then took the coffee cup away from him to take a sip himself, an action that finally got the other to notice him.

"That's MY coffee!" he grumbled, snatching the cup back, "get your own."

Yuzu only grinned, then put his hand over Javi's to tilt the cup back into his direction again, to take another sip.

He shuddered demonstratively.

"How can you drink it so strong?" he wanted to know. "How do you get them to make it so strong?"

Waiting for an answer that wasn't coming he looked at Javi more closely, decided he was too quiet even for him at that time of day.

"What's the matter?" he asked. "Anything special you're thinking about?"

"Kanako-san, something she said," Javi answered. Added, "do you really have your own ice cream in Japan?"

"Eh?" Yuzu said, surprised.

"Kanako-san mentioned it," Javi explained, "she said it was great, that I should try some. Yuzu ice cream, she said."

"Oh," Yuzu said, starting to giggle, "Yuzu ice cream, yes. Would you care to try it? We can get some later, when the shops open."


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Short and sweet - or pleasantly sour? ;)

Yuzu ice cream, of course, Javi thought, looking at the cone in his hand in wry amusement.

Yuzu, the fruit. Not Yuzuru "Yuzu" Hanyu, skating champion.

He chuckled at the thought of how much fun Kanako-san must have had at tricking him like that.

It was a joke that, even if it was at his own expense, he could appreciate.

And she'd been right, the ice cream really was very good.

Yuzu - the human - seemed to think the same, he was licking at his own cone with an almost blissful expression, eyes half closed.

Suddenly, as if he had felt Javi watching him, he opened them again, for a moment watching Javi enjoy his own portion.

"And, do you like the taste," he asked, "of yuzu?"

"Do I like the taste of yuzu?" Javi said musingly, delaying his real answer, maybe taking up Kanako's tease of himself and extending it to Yuzu.

Assuming the haughty expression of some self important wine taster - making Yuzu giggle at that - he proceeded to lick off a rather large portion from the ice cream remaining on his cone.

Yuzu's giggle turned into a smirk.

"You missed some," he said, pointing at Javi's upper lip.

When Javi seemed still busy with the ice cream inside his mouth, Yuzu reached out to remove the small dot of it himself.

He managed to - partly - wipe it off the same moment Javi got around to trying to lick it off, resulting in an unintended meeting of fingertip to tip of tongue...

Yuzu's first impulse was to pull his hand back but then held still when Javi proceeded to lick of more yuzu tasting ice cream from both lip and finger.

Taking the fingertip between his lips for a moment to check if he had gotten all.

"Yes," he said softly, his breath for a moment caressing Yuzu's skin before he finally pulled back the hand, "I like it very much, all this Yuzu..."


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A meeting that changes the day...

They looked into each other's eyes over their hands - Javi had taken Yuzu's into his own without either of them really noticing - neither of them talking as the tension rose like heat between them.

Yuzu licked his lips, trying to find something to say - but couldn't come up with a single idea - when a crash of metal chairs and tables a few paces away startled them into turning around. 

Barely in time for Yuzu to reach out to keep hold of the arm of a young boy that seemed to quiver at the edge of flight among the mess of overturned chairs, looking at them like a deer frozen in the headlights of an oncoming car. 

"落ちついて (calm down)," Yuzu said, righting one of the chairs with his free arm, while Javi was taking care of two more that lay on their sides, while still holding on to the boy, then nudging him into one of the chairs. 

"落ちついて (calm down),"he repeated, "大丈夫ですから. (Everything's fine.)"

"I told him to calm down," he told Javi, as the boy sat in his chair as rigid as a metal rod, "but now I'm curious why he seems so upset. I'd like to find out if you don't mind. Or... I could call you a cab to take you back to the hotel..."

"It's fine, "Javi told him; he didn't mind that he wouldn't understand anything for a while if that meant he would get to see Yuzu outside the world of ice skating, a world none of the other skaters, himself included, ever got to see.

The smile Yuzu gave him before turning back to the boy already was a reward, as was, in a different way, watching the boy, who had jumped out of his chair as soon as he saw Yuzu's attention focused back on himself, to bow deeply from the waist, repeating the same few words over and over again.

"いい (enough)," Yuzu cut him off, nodding at the seat. "お座りなさい. (Sit down.) お名前は? (What is your name?)"

The last, what's your name, even Javi understood; he was amused at himself for feeling slightly proud of that. 

"末永慶彦です (I'm Yoshihiko Suenaga)," the boy answered with a smart bow, before sitting down again in the previous very upright fashion. It was his name obviously, Javi concluded; what surprised him was the sudden look of shock on Yuzu's face, there only for the briefest moment before it was replaced again with an encouraging smile for the boy, but having been there nonetheless.

"いわき出身で、今、名古屋で練習しています (I'm from Iwaki, but now I'm training in Nagoya)," the boy continued talking, leaving Javi behind but Yuzu nodding. 

"スケートの練習です (I train figure skating)," he added by way of explanation. Looking from Yuzu to Javi and back he suddenly turned scarlet, bowed again. "7才です.4才で,スケート始まりました. (I'm 7 now; I started training when I was 4.)"

Said something to Yuzu with a look at Javi. 

"His name is Yoshihiko Suenaga," Yuzu explained to his friend - that quick shadow flitting over his face again - with nod at the boy, "he's from Iwaki originally, but now training in Nagoya."

"Iwaki, that's in Fukushima," he added, realising from Javi's bland look that the town's name didn't mean anything to him. Waved away his realisation when Javi tried to say something. 

"Figure skating, that is," Yuzu continued, his voice taking on a tone Javi had never heard before and wasn't sure he wanted to again, even though he couldn't exactly identify what it was he didn't like in it. He forced himself to pay attention again to what Yuzu was saying, "he's seven now, started at four."

"He asked me to apologize to you, too," he finished, with the slightest smile, "though I have yet to find out what exactly he is apologizing for."

He did, as soon as he turned to the boy again, who had followed his words closely and obviously understood at least the gist of them, as his words were the answer to Yuzu's implied question.

"話しかけるつもりではありませんでした (I hadn't meant to bother you by trying to talk to you)," he said, blushing, "追いかけるのも... だが, アイスクリームお好きだと有名な話しで,このお店は名古屋で一番美味しいと知られ... ついに... (or follow you... but, it's well known you like ice cream... and this place is known as Nagoya's best ice cream parlour..., so I just...)"

"クラブで, 偶然, 宇野先輩が, スケジュールの話ししたとき, 聞いてしまいました... (At the club I accidentally overheard Uno-sempai talking about your schedule...)" he stared at his feet, his shoulders slumping.

"ボクが, 居るか居ないか, 皆, あまり気にしていないなんで... (Nobody there pays much attention to me, whether I'm there or not...) 東北の者で, 名古屋で練習するの... (Training in Nagoya, when you're from Touhoku...)" he said, his voice trailing off. 

Not looking at him he didn't notice Yuzu flinching; Javi, who was looking at his friend, noticed but couldn't figure out why. And asking for further explanations somehow seemed not a good idea just at the moment. 

The moment to ask was lost anyhow when the boy looked up again, suddenly fervent.

"ボクのヒーローです! (You are my hero!)" he declared, as if trying to take on the whole world. "辛いときや, 何があっても, 諦めずに滑り続けた... 羽生選手, ボクのヒーローです! (When things were hard, whatever happened, despite everything that happened, you never stopped skating... You ARE my hero, Hanyu-senshu!)"

"すみません (I'm sorry)," he added immediately, flushing scarlet, not noticing that Yuzu himself was blushing as well, if not as badly, "すみません, もう帰ります. (I'm sorry, I'll go home already.)"

He seemed about ready to run from a sitting start from the chair, a gesture from Yuzu held him back. 

Another one held Javi back from asking any questions. 

"Later," Yuzu told him, quietly, "please. I..."

Without finishing the sentence he turned back to the boy, said something in too low a voice for Javi to hear, much less understand.

That it wasn't normal small talk became quickly obvious from the boy's demeanour, his eyes growing wider and wider, finally a solemn nod, another deep bow. 

Yuzu smiled a little - the first really genuine smile since the talk with the boy had started, Javi thought - then reached for one of the paper napkins on the table, wrote down something in Japanese and signed it. 

Then reached for another napkin, on that wrote down a string of numbers that Javi with considerable surprise recognised as Yuzu's cell phone number. 

"Yuzu," he said, unable to stop himself, only to be interrupted by Yuzu who shoved the first napkin at him.

"Write something, Javi, please," he said, "for good luck, for never give up. Write it in Spanish. And sign it."

"In Spanish?" Javi asked, astonished. "Can he read Spanish?"

"No," Yuzu said, shaking his head, "but it doesn't matter. I'll tell him what you wrote. It's not the words that matter most anyhow."

He waited until Javi had finished, asking him the meaning of his writing, in turn explained to the boy as he handed him the two papers. 

The boy took them as if he'd been given the biggest treasures in the world, put them away carefully, made another of his deep bows. 

Of the next sentence Javi understood at least a name.

"昌磨くんに内緒でね (let's keep this a secret from Shoma-kun)," Yuzu said, then with a sudden mischievous expression reached out to ruffle the boy's hair, pretty much as he did with Shoma as well. 

A quick gesture from him brought a waiter with a cone of yuzu ice cream for the boy, another few quiet words from Yuzu send him on his way, after yet another of his very formal bows.

The smile on Yuzu's face disappeared the moment the boy closed the door behind him, his face a sudden expressionless mask completely shuttered. Nothing Javi had ever seen before on his friend's face.

"Yuzu?" he asked. He had to repeat the name again before Yuzu turned to look at him.

"What was that about?" Javi asked. "And I don't mean only what was said. Even I could see there's more to it than what was said."

Yuzu hesitated a moment, then he shook his head. Smiled apologetically. 

"You wouldn't understand," he said, softly, but in a way that seemed devastatingly final. 

Not that Javi was going to accept being shut out that easily.

"Try me," he said.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For the Japanese in this, the text in brackets is the translation, which of course would not have been said out loud.


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> ...and after

Javi kept studying Yuzu's face, searching for clues in his unreadable expression, waiting for an answer

When Yuzu finally spoke, it was a complete change of topic. 

"It's getting late," he said, "come, I'll walk you back to the hotel." 

"You'll walk me back to the hotel," Javi repeated, careful to keep his voice neutral, but not moving even a hair's width. "And then?"

"It's almost dinner time," Yuzu non-answered, "you'll miss it if we don't start going back soon."

"I'll miss it," Javi repeated Yuzu's words again, hoping his increasing annoyance at his friend's evasion wasn't creeping into his tone, "but not you?"

"I'm not hungry," Yuzu said quietly, avoiding his eyes. 

"But you're keeping me company?" Javi demanded, "while I have dinner?"

"I..." Yuzu started, but broke off after just that word.

"The hotel," he said instead, "I'll..."

"You'll walk me to the hotel," Javi interrupted, "you already said that. Then I'm supposed to eat, but you won't. Anything else you already decided on?"

"What is going on, Yuzu?" he demanded, "or am I not even allowed to ask that?"

He wanted to grab Yuzu by the shoulders, shake him, shake answers out of him, but doubted that would work. 

He was furious, he couldn't help it really, that he was more furious at Yuzu than he had thought possible, and the anger wasn't even the worst. 

Much much worse was the way it hurt, Yuzu shutting him out like this, when all he wanted was wanting to know, wanting to help. 

Hurt even more that Yuzu didn't trust him, not enough to share his thoughts, feelings...

Upset, he almost didn't hear Yuzu's soft "Javi..."

He jerked his arm back from Yuzu's tentatively reaching out hand. 

Ignored the surprised, then hurt - both quickly hidden again - look on Yuzu's face.

"Javi," Yuzu said, sounding more controlled than ever, "we really should go."

"Are we having dinner?" Javi demanded, hoping that the challenge would get his friend to reconsider. 

Silence - too long silence - the only answer. 

"Don't bother," Javi told Yuzu brusquely, half turning away. 

"It's no bother," Yuzu protested, reaching out again but letting his arm drop when he saw Javi wasn't even watching. "I..."

"I said no," Javi interrupted, barely bothering to look back over his shoulder. 

"But you don't speak Japanese," Yuzu protested.

Javi stopped a moment.

"Dinner?" he asked, torn between hope and hurt.

"Javi..." the one word almost inaudible. Plea - and complete rejection, it sounded to Javi.

He turned around once more, looked Yuzu straight in the eyes.

"Got it," he said, added, brutally, "you don't need me. Fine. I don't need you, either."


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Just...

Yuzu was too stunned to react when Javi turned on his heel and walked out of the ice cream parlor. He only woke up from his stupor at the sound of the softly tingling bell at the door as it closed, then darted out of it.

Panic gripped him the next moment: he could not have been more than a couple or three seconds later than Javi, but the other was nowhere to be seen.

Cabs were, as is common in Japan, cruising by frequently, but could Javi have gotten one that fast, Yuzu wondered. And even if he had, wouldn't it still be waiting at the road side while Javi tried to explain where he wanted to go?

He couldn't just have been gone that quickly, that was impossible, Yuzu decided, spinning around to check if he could have possibly missed something.

Once.

Twice.

A third time.

He thought he saw someone standing in the large, recessed entrance of some office building - empty by now, late afternoon, so it was very unlikely to be some lingering employee... 

He hesitated a moment, but then slowly walked over to the man who stood with his back to the street, his forehead, it seemed, resting against the cool black marble that covered the walls next to the wide doors. 

A man he'd recognise anywhere, back view or any other.

"Javi," he said.

Then, when the other didn't react, a little louder, "Javi, please."

Nobody but he himself, he thought, would have seen any reaction from the other; he however noticed a tiny shudder. 

Enough to make him continue, even if he had to talk to the turned back.

"Why did you say that?" he asked, moving closer, just within touching distance. Refrained form touching, though.

"How COULD you say that?" he continued, his voice rather uneven, "how could you even THINK that!?"

"Javi," he pleaded, trying to avoid sounding desparate, though he started feeling that way, "please, can't you at least LOOK at me?"

"I don't know if I want to," Javi finally answered, but turned around slowly nevertheless, "not when you don't want me around."

"But!" Yuzu protested, but then stopped; for the first time since the start of their last conversation started reflecting how his answers, his behaviour must have felt to Javi.

He shook his head, at his own behaviour, at the misunderstanding it had caused.

"That's not how I meant it," he said; "I didn't mean..."

He paused, tried a new approach.

"You should be having fun while you are here in Japan," he said, "I want you to have fun, to like everything. I want to make sure you have a good time, I don't want - and I should not, either! - to burden you with my... silly stuff!"

"But I ruined your time anyhow, I guess," he added remorsefully. "Can't I be at least so little useful that I help you to the hotel?"

Javi studied Yuzu for a moment, without saying anything yet.

'I wouldn't call it silly stuff,' he thought, 'whatever it is that upsets you so much.'

He didn't say it; for the moment it didn't seem as if anything useful would come out of trying for answers again.

"No," he said finally, shaking his head, "no, on the hotel. You can't. If you really want to, you can help me with something else practical. But, most of all, you can let me stay with you. Until... Just let me stay with you, for now."


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Glitter. LOTS of glitter.
> 
> And 猫耳. にゃん!

Javi knew something was wrong the moment the sales lady said "羽生選手" though the only other words he understood from her few sentences - aside from 羽生選手 - were 名古屋, 応援 and 頑張ってください. 

Whatever it was had certainly been enough to wipe out the genuine smile of delight that Yuzu had shown during their unexpectedly fun shopping time and replace it with his "the politest skater, the politest sportsperson ever" smiling mask that was his trademark in all his media appearances.

The smile that would always be there, together with his forward optimistic, looking attitude, that Javi by now suspected was simply a way to hide darker aspects of his life, that he preferred to keep away from public scrutiny. 

The smile that convinced everybody that he was, while serious and determined, also basically happy.

At least everybody who had never seen the smile that had brilliantly lit up Yuzu's face during the last hour, after he had first discovered the "glamour" cosmetics "輝" line, the set of glimmer accent stick, glimmer body powder and glimmer body lotion - plus various other glittery item such as blushers and eye shadows - in very many more colours than just the gold show in the advertisement.

His mischievous insistence that they call Laura to find out if she knew about the whole colour range - she had not - calling him "estupido" cheekily when he had protested the costs of an international call, showing of the "worldwide free video chat" app on his iPhone. 

He had also insisted that Javi formally introduce him to his sister, even though Laura had enthusiastically asserted that of course she knew him. 

He had actually laughed out loud - if not too loud - with pleasure when Laura had thanked him for the call because "mi hermanito" - "don't call me that!" Javi had grumbled at her over Yuzu's shoulder - "would have never in his life have done this on his own - you have NO IDEA what it took just to get him to agree to go looking at all!" 

The two of them had proved to be enthusiastic co-conspirators as well in driving Javi crazy - even if that was not their primary intention, but to them more of an entertaining side effect - when Yuzu got one of the sales ladies to demonstrate every single item in the "輝 - GLAMOUR Summer Special" line that to Javi seemed to come in a great variety of products but an even more bewildering range of colours, several different shades of violet, pink and the complete spectrum of blues and greens, on top of the simple gold, silver and bronze he had expected. 

He had quickly given up trying to keep track of the names and shades of the colours, only able to watch in bewitched, bewildered bemusement as Yuzu not only allowed himself - luckily maybe just his arm, not his face: Yuzu acquiring an impossibly cute make up was something Javi did not even want to consider - to be used as a canvas replacement for colour testing but positively, gleefully gloried in it, in the process acquiring not only various streaks of glittery powder that seemed to include any possible colour of the rainbow - and then some, maybe - but also a pair of impossibly cute glittery cat ears. 

The latter admittedly courtesy of Javi himself: after Laura had asked what some items on a shelf in the back were, that she could not clearly see on her screen at the distance and the sales lady had produced a number of sparkly "party ears" headbands, by then more secretly amused than really exasperated - as he pretended to be - Javi had impulsively plugged a pair of light purple, blue and turquoise hued kitty ears out of the collection and popped on Yuzu's head. 

Causing the sales lady to discreetly turn around to hide a rather too unprofessionally wide smile as Yuzu broke out into a fit of giggles as he approvingly eyed himself in the various mirrors around, sending sparkles of light reflected from the crystal edge of the ears all over the place. 

Grinning ear to ear at Javi he declared that he absolutely had to have them - and a second pair for Laura, of course! - even if he could not wear them at the ice shows, as Glamour cosmetics belonged to a corporate rival of one of his sponsors. 

He had kept them on his head as well while he and Laura went through the lengthy process of deciding which colours she wanted - she had declined to follow Yuzu's own approach of "one set of every colour" he had decided to get for Saya; supposedly for Saya, Javi thought - and only reluctantly, with a wistful smile, pulled it off and handed it over to the sales lady, to be wrapped up with the rest. 

His smile still pure delight over their unexpected, silly, fun, glittery adventure.

Until the sales lady called him by his name.


End file.
